"If a prisoner called someone not a relative that would be in violation of policy."

The call is believed to be the first made from Guantanamo Bay to a media organisation by an inmate.

Ongoing abuse

On his second day in office, Obama ordered the closure of the prison,
which has been heavily criticised by rights groups over reports of
ill-treatment of detainees.

Obama also signed an order ending the harsh interrogation of
prisoners - including the waterboarding technique that causes detainees
to feel like they are drowning.

The prison camp was set up by the Bush administration in 2002 to
hold prisoners it detained as part of its so-called war on terror.

Several hundred detainees have since been released but more than 240
prisoners remain there, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is
suspected of planning the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US.

'No change'

Describing a specific incident, which took place after the change in
the US administration, al-Qurani said he had refused to leave his cell
because they were "not granting me my rights", such as being able to
walk around, interact with other inmates and have "normal food".

A group of six soldiers wearing protective gear and helmets entered
his cell, accompanied by one soldier carrying a camera and one with
tear gas, he said.

"They had a thick rubber or plastic baton they beat me with. They
emptied out about two canisters of tear gas on me," he told Al Jazeera.

"After I stopped talking, and tears were flowing from my eyes, I could hardly see or breathe.

"They then beat me again to the ground, one of them held my head and
beat it against the ground. I started screaming to his senior 'see what
he's doing, see what he's doing' [but] his senior started laughing and
said 'he's doing his job'.

"He broke one of my front teeth. Of course they didn't film the blood, they filmed my back so it doesn't show."

Al Jazeera provided detailed information of al-Qurani's mistreatment
claim to the Pentagon and the US justice department but only received a
reply from DeWalt, the Guantanamo spokesman.

"I have no record of authenticity of this," he told Al Jazeera, referring to al-Qurani's accusations.

"It is an alleged phone transcript... We don't have any evidence supporting or substantiating any of these claims."